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You'll want to perform a 75% water change on your tank asap. You want to try to keep your ammonia under .25 or you could lose more fish. Seachem Prime is a great dechlorinator that also locks up ammonia and helps make it less toxic so definitely use that if you have it.
Glad you found some kits too, they do have expiration dates so you'll want to make sure they are still good.

Ok the NH3/4 test came out to between .50 and 1.0. The color was a bit closer to .50 than 1.0 but if I had to call it, I would say .70. The temp of my tank is 22cels/72 faren. I had another chemical test re a pH test and when I did that one, it came out to 6.6. Not sure what these numbers mean but I will not be adding any more fish for while and will heed your advise above as to removing the carbon from the filters and doing a couple of water changes over the next few weeks. I will use tap water instead of spring water.

Just lost one of my big Bala fish! How can I stop this! If the rest of the fish die, which is almost certain to happen now, I want to add more fish. Is there a chemical to add to get the nitrate numbers right? Do I just run the tank for a few weeks with 1-2 20-25% water changes? This is REALLY becoming frustrating!

If you take your time to do the research FIRST, you can successfully set-up and keep ANY type of aquarium with ease."Not using a quarantine tank is like playing Russian roulette. Nobody wins the game, some people just get to play longer than others." - Anthony CalfoFishless CycleCycling with FishMarine Aquarium Info [URL="http://saltwater.aquaticcommunity.com/"]

If you lose all fish do a fishless cycle from now on.
Read more on cycles with fish. The fish you are keeping are very sensitive to these high levels. There really is nothing you can add to help with cycles and less chemicals are best anyway... however there is a thing called CYCLE that says it helps... I have used it and it does seem to work but most will argue that it doesnt. Mostly you've got to quit changing out your filter media! You should only do that if its so torn up that its no good. And then ONLY change ONE part of media at a time. Not the whole thing. Do a water change...probably going to need one daily I would think to get this right.

Hang in there thlorian, I know this is really frustrating. Dumping chemicals of any kind other than dechlorinator is not recommended. There are products that advertise that they speed up or quick cycle your tank, but there really is no way to skip the cycling process. Did you get a chance to read through that original link I put in on " cycling with fish"? It really will tell you exactly what you need to do.

Though it's true that your remaining fish are weakened by the state of your water, don't write them off yet. Do large daily water changes to keep that ammonia below .25. Aand read that cycling with fish post.

Don't know what kind of filter that is but if you replace most of the contents of the filter every time you do a water change you got the root cause of why most of your fish died.

Its a Whisper dual filter. About once a month, I replace the filter bag (white cotton) with a new one and add new carbon. So you guys are telling me NOT to do this every month and to just keep the filters in the tank (inside the Whisper container)? Each month when I pull them out, the cotton bags are "soaked" green. This is ok? This is so odd because I have had these fish for three years and NEVER EVER had a problem at all. Now all of a sudden they are all dead - very frustrating!

If you lose all fish do a fishless cycle from now on.
Read more on cycles with fish. The fish you are keeping are very sensitive to these high levels. There really is nothing you can add to help with cycles and less chemicals are best anyway... however there is a thing called CYCLE that says it helps... I have used it and it does seem to work but most will argue that it doesnt. Mostly you've got to quit changing out your filter media! You should only do that if its so torn up that its no good. And then ONLY change ONE part of media at a time. Not the whole thing. Do a water change...probably going to need one daily I would think to get this right.

Ok I will keep the filters that are in there now which are brand new from my water change over a week ago. Starting today, I will do a water change of 20% every other day using my gravel suction kit (as usual) and I will use tap water to add back in (not spring water from the store). I will take another NH# and pH test next weekend (and the following two weekends) and post here for you guys to let me know where this stands in terms of the numbers. I also found two FISH stores (not Petsmart or Petco) that are about 35 miles away that I will visit soon so that I will begin buying my fish and related products from them instead of Petco and Petsmart. Other than that, is there anything else I can do or just be patient for 3-4 weeks as the tank "develops itself"?

You'll want to perform a 75% water change on your tank asap. You want to try to keep your ammonia under .25 or you could lose more fish. Seachem Prime is a great dechlorinator that also locks up ammonia and helps make it less toxic so definitely use that if you have it.
Glad you found some kits too, they do have expiration dates so you'll want to make sure they are still good.

I just posted that I was going to do a 20% change today but then I re-read your post here and will do a 75% change. i am just going to use tap water but we live WAY out in the country and have a water softener. Don't know how that will affect things but I will do a NH3 test on the tap water right now and post numbers here in 20-30 minutes. Really do appreciate everyone's help on this . . .

Based on the test results you posted in this thread (Post #19) and the fact you resently changesd your filter media, I would say you are cycling this tank with fish in it. There is a link below in my sig to a thread here that explains how to cycl with fish. You might want to give it a quick read

Basically you have to test your parameters daily and complete a water changes if the ammonia and/or nitrite levels get higher than 0.25ppm. You also have to base the size of the water change on your test results as well. For example, if your ammonia reaches 1.0ppm, you will need to complete a 75% water change to lower it to 0.25ppm

If you take your time to do the research FIRST, you can successfully set-up and keep ANY type of aquarium with ease."Not using a quarantine tank is like playing Russian roulette. Nobody wins the game, some people just get to play longer than others." - Anthony CalfoFishless CycleCycling with FishMarine Aquarium Info [URL="http://saltwater.aquaticcommunity.com/"]